Desmond leads Old Firm push to move south

DERMOT DESMOND, the Irish millionaire entrepreneur who is Celtic's biggest single shareholder, has emerged as the main player in the saga of a possible Old Firm move to England.

Desmond, who bought his first Celtic shares only three years ago, acquired another 2,000,000 last Thursday to take his holding to 20.5 per cent. Some took this as a sign that Desmond is sure Celtic and Rangers are about to be accepted in the south but City analysts think he has simply taken advantage of a low price - Celtic's ordinary shares have been trading at 52p - to add to his stake.

Desmond has already made his influence felt at Celtic Park. When the previous chief executive, Alan McDonald, tried to bring former Holland manager, Guus Hiddinck, Desmond insisted upon the appointment of Martin O'Neill. He has now focused his determination on taking Celtic out of Scotland, an issue upon which not all his fellow directors share his single-mindedness. It was notable that Desmond alone met with Keith Harris, chairman of the Nationwide Football League, to trigger the latest bout of speculation.

Rangers are nothing like so enthusiastic about switching to the English competition, although they share Celtic's desire to tap into far greater TV revenues than are available in the constricted Scottish market. David Murray, owner and chairman of Rangers since 1988, last week restated his conviction that the Ibrox club are a Scottish institution who should remain in Scotland. The Scottish Premier League has been in turmoil since the Old Firm last month vetoed a proposal to set up a dedicated subscription TV service provoking the other 10 clubs into saying they would resign.

Their resignations - which would take two full seasons to implement - have not yet been received. In another development, BskyB last week walked away from negotiation about a possible interim satellite deal when news of Desmond's initiative reached them.

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Yesterday, Murray said: "Celtic and Rangers are a major attraction for the Nationwide League in terms of their own TV deal but I felt it was correct that we should attend a meeting and see what they had to say. It is possible they will invite us to join them towards the end of this week.

"If common sense doesn't prevail (within the SPL) our fans may be making their last visit to a place like Dunfermline which would be very sad. The rest of the SPL clubs can't expect ourselves and Celtic to do nothing. I put out an olive branch last week and I said `let's negotiate'. Nobody has phoned me. What are we to do - wait until there is nobody except Celtic to play against."

While it is clear that Murray wants some resolution of the SPL crisis which would then close off the possibility of a move to England, the football authorities were queuing to say that there is no chance of it happening. David Will, the Scottish vice-president of FIFA - who has recently has his term of office extended for four years - said: "All previous attempts to take clubs from one national league and permit them to play within another jurisdiction have been categorically and immediately turned down."

UEFA officials meeting in Glasgow were unwilling to be drawn back into the controversy but reiterated that they are not in favour of such a move and could not sanction it under present circumstances. David Taylor, chief executive of the Scottish Football Association, said: "We have no proposal in front of us at the moment and any such move would require our sanction as well as that of the FA of England, UEFA and FIFA as well as other interested parties. We are here to do what is best for Scottish football as a whole and that remains our position."

David Burns, chief executive of the Football League, has also tried hard to dismiss the idea - insisting that English clubs had no enthusiasm for the proposal - but a source said: "The matter will definitely be discussed. The Football League clubs have lost a third of their income and we have to think the unthinkable."

Against the opposition, Desmond is banking that he can find a series of loopholes along with some form of concrete proposal which will force the issue soon. Within Celtic, this is known as the "big bang theory".

Of the two club managers, Rangers' Alex McLeish was guardely enthusiastic about playing in the Nationwide League next year. He said: "If it proves to be a stepping stone to the Premiership then I'm sure no manager or player would refuse the chance to savour one of Europe's top leagues.

"Having said that, I'll believe it when I see it. I've been kept updated of developments, though I'm happy to say that I've not been part of the politics. As for the meeting last week, I was not aware of anything like that."

By contrast, Celtic's Martin O'Neill pleaded ignorance about the whole situation. He said: "I have no idea at all. There is no point trying to get anything out of me because I don't know anything."